I like to see a friendly pat on the back

Saturday

Feb 9, 2013 at 5:22 PM

Stephanie Ziebarth

We are a homeschooling family, but we don’t believe that is the only viable option for families.

I’ve noticed that people have all sorts of ideas about homeschooling families (I had some before becoming a homeschooling mother myself). The reality is that we’re about as different from each other as public or private school families are. So I definitely try to avoid sweeping generalizations about homeschoolers.

Yet there is one thing that has impressed me ever since we began homeschooling: homeschool sports groups.

I cannot think of a negative experience I have had with homeschool sports leagues. The key difference I’ve noticed has to do with attitude.

Right now my son is in a very small homeschool basketball league. I recently witnessed one player making a fast pass to another. The recipient wasn’t ready, so he simply ducked. The ball flew over his head and out of bounds. Instead of expressing frustration, the player who passed the ball simply smiled and patted the other player’s back. And they continued to play.

If a player had made a comparable mistake playing baseball in the local league, the player who threw the ball could well have thrown his glove onto the ground and yelled an insulting name to the teammate who made the error. At least, that’s what I have seen many times as a baseball spectator during summer community games.

What makes the difference? I’m not completely sure. I suspect it has something to do with the homeschooling leagues having a smaller pool to draw from, thus homeschool teams vary more in age and ability. These students are accustomed to playing with all sorts of people.

And I guess I should probably face it: it’s pretty hard to be a homeschooling family without taking a very active role in raising your children. So I guess that means homeschooling leagues aren’t going to attract as many kids who act out in attempt to gain attention.

Overall, our family has had very positive experiences in both homeschool and community sports. So I say a big thank-you to the many individuals (coaches and those behind the scenes) who makes these options available to our community’s children.

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